Indignity, disloyalty, opportunism and inconstancy: the ills gnawing at the Congolese political class from 1960 to this day
Despite its vast riches, the DRC is on its knees today, a laughing stock before the whole world. The blame lies, above all, with the mediocrity and recklessness of its political class, made up largely of opportunistic hawks with no convictions.
Public opinion in the DRC was recently stirred by a media appearance from Jean-Claude MASANGU MULONGO, the former governor of the Central Bank of Congo, who also headed the Congolese Institute of Missions throughout the Kabila years, under father and son alike.
Marked by lies, half-truths and fawning praise for the Tshisekedi regime, his intervention has drawn sharp reactions from a number of public figures and internet users.
Mr Masangu Mulongo hails from Katanga, from the territory of Malemba Nkulu, and belongs to the Balubakat tribe, as does former president Joseph Kabila Kabange. He ran the Central Bank of Congo from 1997 to 2013, when he was replaced by Déogracias MUTOMBO.
In testimony that flatters the current authorities and damns Mr Kabila, he claimed that the central bank was not independent in his day, that Mr Kabila meddled in its running, and that it was only under Félix Tshisekedi that the institution became fully independent. What a joke.
He also claimed to have paid for Moïse Katumbi's plane ticket home in 2003. Yet Mr Katumbi was already a millionaire at the time, with a private jet at his disposal.
Mr Masangu Mulongo is far from an isolated case. When the FCC-CACH coalition collapsed and Mr Kabila fell out with his successor, Mr Tshisekedi, a host of politicians who had served under Mr Kabila for years turned Tshisekedist almost overnight.
To excuse this fickleness and political turncoating, they trot out a distinctly Congolese slogan: "politics is dynamic". Many have felt obliged to disown the reforms and achievements of the former president in order to win acceptance in Mr Tshisekedi's camp.
Some have even gone so far as to brand their former boss a Rwandan, claiming that anyone wanting to be appointed minister or to head a state-owned company had to sit a test in Kigali, Rwanda.
- Ngoy Kasangi
- Alain Atundu
- Christophe Mboso
- Bahati Lukwebo
- Jacques Kyabula
- Masangu Mulongo
- Dany Bana
- Léonard She Okitundu
- Lambert Mende
- Marie-Ange Lukiana
- Patrick Muyaya
- Fifi Masuka
- Adolphe Lumanu
- Évariste Boshab, and a great many others
All of them helped govern the DRC for 18 years under Mr Kabila's leadership. Since 2021, they have become cheerleaders for the new regime.
“Such deplorable conduct shows how the Congolese politician has remained opportunistic and devoid of dignity since 1960. Several of these figures, after all, started out alongside the late dictator Joseph-Désiré MOBUTU before switching to the Kabila camp.”
“Despite its vast riches, the DRC is on its knees today, a laughing stock before the whole world. The blame lies, above all, with the mediocrity and recklessness of its political class, made up largely of opportunistic hawks with no convictions.”
The very birds now singing the praises of Félix Tshisekedi will be quick to abandon ship when his downfall comes, and it increasingly looks inevitable, flocking to the new king. Most saddening of all, even the Congolese intellectual youth has grown up under this curse and is now following in their footsteps.
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